1.Repression and police brutality

Protesters and occupiers in Spain, Greece and South Africa are facing police brutality.

The Spanish police is reacting with increasing violence against the Asturian miners, protesting against cuts in the mining sector. The cuts are part of the austerity policies started by the Spanish government after the bailout to Spanish banks by the EU. Coal miners are at the vanguard of the fight against the new austerity measures.

On the 3rd of July, struggles erupted in the small town of Ciñera [ESP]

Hundreds of workers started a march (the ‘marcha negra’ – black march) on foot from different points in Spain on June 22nd to converge in Madrid on July 11th. During the march the workers have been assaulted by riot cops.

The march was joined by masses of workers from other sectors, the vast majority of them peaceful. Tens of thousands of Spaniards including public sector workers–who lined along La Castellana Avenue of Madrid to welcome the miners–joined the coal miners as they marched into Madrid’s Puerta del Sol.

The large rally in Madrid’s main square on July 11th ended in chaos. Police chased protesters, seized and beat them with their batons and fired rubber bullets to disperse others as the march reached the heavily protected Ministry of Industry, in northern Madrid.

Amnesty International denounces Greek police brutality. In a report released on July 3rd, Amnesty International documents and condemns the brutality of Greek police against protesters, journalists and bystanders [ENG]

The Ward 88 community further demands respect for women’s rights in a township notorious for patriarchy and rape, and an end to discrimination, xenophobia, tribalism, racism, political warfare and economic injustice. See Occupy Umlazi!

2. Democracy

In Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto claimed victory in the last elections, amidst accusations of fraud. YoSoy132 and other activist groups tried to record illegal activities before, during, and after election day, and have generated a huge, crowdsourced database

3. Housing

When the right to housing becomes exceptional #Stopevictions #OccupyOurhomes

In Spain, members of PAH (a platform of people affected by mortgages) decided to enclose themselves in Madrid’s Cathedral to demand a stop to evictions due to nonpayment. In Madrid, 50 families are being evicted everyday. Banks receiving bail outs are still evicting hundreds of people a day across the country. On June 29th a group of evicted families occupied the Almudena’s Cathedral after the 19h mass. Church representative rejected any dialogue with the families and called the police, who appeared in large numbers. Policemen arriving in 22 riot police vans took dozens of families out of the Cathedral.

4. Environment

Food & Water Watch Europe is calling to turn the “national frackdown day” – fixed in the United States for September 22nd 2012 – into a GLOBAL day against fracking. Following the regional/international meetings in Marseille (The Alternative World Water Forum – March 2012) and Rio (Peoples’ Summit – June 2012), there is a growing consensus among the anti-fracking movements around the world about the need of a global anti-fracking day to mobilise locally and build solidarity within the movements.

As a result of the campaign against Cajamarca gold mine, on July 4, 2012, there were attacks against the inhabitants of the town of Celendín, Peru, who were mourning the death of three people. A series of illegal arrests were conducted.

In Brazil,two activists, Almir Nogueira de Amorim and João Luiz Telles Penetra, have been brutally murdered. They were local fishermen campaigning against the construction of gas and oil pipelines by the Brazilian multinational Petrobras, which disrupted their fishing and livelihood. They spoke at the recent Rio + 20 conference.

7. Education

The International Student Movement (ISM) is an independent communication platform for groups and activists around the world to exchange information, network and coordinate protests in our struggle against the increasing privatisation of education and for free emancipatory education for all! http://ism-global.net/

ISM is coordinating a Global Education Strike, to be held on 14-21st November 2012.

8. Direct Action. Raising awareness and empowering the 99%

The vision for a democratic future created at the national gathering in Philadelphia http://interoccupy.net/newswire/natgat-vision-results/ . The National Gathering working group invites anyone interested in continuing the conversation about how to further build on, and utilise this vision to visit the new Interoccupy vision hub or join the next National Gathering working group conference call this Tuesday, July 17th at 9PM EST.

Spain: On the 30 of June, computer experts and IT workers took the streets to protest against worsening working conditions, exploitation and precarious contracts [ESP]

England: Art collective Liberate Tate (liberatetate.org) installed a massive 16.5 metre, one and a half tonne wind turbine blade in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in London Saturday 7th July 2012, submitting the artwork to be part of Tate’s permanent collection. The artwork, called ‘The Gift’, was installed in an unofficial performance involving over 100 members of the group that has become internationally renowned for artworks aimed at ending the relationship of Tate and other national cultural institutions with oil companies.

Hong Kong protests – in pictures. Fifteen years after British colonial rule ended and China regained control of the city, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in the annual pro-democracy march.

Protesters occupying the plaza under HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA)’s Hong Kong headquarters were given two weeks to respond to the bank’s lawsuit asking for permission to remove them.

Master K. Lo at Hong Kong’s Court of First Instance today set Aug. 13 for the next hearing of the case against the nine- month protest, one of the longest-running demonstrations sparked by the Occupy Wall Street movement. HSBC had requested occupiers leave voluntarily on May 29 and wants to clear the area for a number of community events, bank spokesman Gareth Hewett said earlier.

Protesters for Occupy Wall Street, whose movement to highlight income inequality spread from New York to other cities globally, were evicted in November, and others in London were evicted from their Finsbury Square camp on June 14. In Hong Kong, protesters numbering about 50 at the peak have pitched tents and laid out couches as they played guitars and ran photography classes in the ground floor plaza under HSBC’s Central building.